Thursday, October 04, 2012

"The Florida Department of Law Enforcement announced Wednesday that it is launching a criminal investigation into voter registration forms filed by a GOP vendor, Strategic Allied Consulting."

Submitting false voter registration information is a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in jail and a fine of up to $5,000. Questionable forms in a dozen counties, spanning from South Florida to the Panhandle, have turned up that suggest fraud on a wide scale. Many were incomplete, at least one was registered to a dead person, and some in Palm Beach County included addresses for voters that were business locations, such as a gas station, a Land Rover dealership and a Port Everglades administrative office.

"On Tuesday, Bennett Miller, the assistant general council [sic] for the Department of State, sent an email to all 67 county supervisors of elections instructing them to review all the voter registration forms filed by the Republican Party of Florida."

"Please limit access to the registrations to yourselves and a trusted member of your staff," Miller said in the email. "At some point, these registrations may become evidence used in court, so it is important for you to take steps to protect them from tampering."

Counties now must go back and review the forms that have been filed by the RPOF, which many have already started doing.

"The amendments seek to limit state and local tax increases. 1000 Friends of Florida says limiting revenue hurts programs affecting growth and quality of life, including the environment. Audubon Florida is considering opposition to both, and Sierra Club Florida is opposed to Amendment 3." "Environmental opposition announced to Amendments 3, 4".

"Disparate instances of imprudence"

Fred Grimm: "Who would have thought that two disparate instances of imprudence back in 2003, one in wartime Iraq, one in party-time Miami Beach, would come to have such relevance in the Florida election of 2012?"

Yet, the poor folks trapped in Florida’s 18th Congressional District have been subjected to a barrage of attacks ads suggesting that the events of 2003 tell all one really needs to know about their candidates.

Back in 2003, U.S. Rep. Allen West, then a colonel in the U.S. Army, was charged, though never actually court marshaled, for firing a gun near an Iraqi prisoner’s head. The Army didn’t think much of his interrogation technique, fining him $5,000 and forcing him to retire. Perhaps the incident foretold something about West’s brash character as a politician, but after two years in office, his actual congressional record informs voters exactly how this Tea Party firebrand would perform as their U.S. representative.

In 2003, when challenger Patrick Murphy was 19, he was rousted for disorderly intoxication, a fake ID and mouthing off to a cop outside a Miami Beach night club. The charges were later dropped. This incident too has become the stuff of an attack campaign, as if someone’s behavior as a 19-year-old loose on South Beach might be a useful barometer of his political acumen nine years later.

Meanwhile, a SuperPac has gone after West with a nasty cartoon ad that depicts him with an outsized head knocking old ladies around a boxing ring. Another SuperPac goes after Murphy as one of the generic Democrats who support “wasteful spending like exotic ant research,” as tiny ants scurry across the TV screen. Apparently, the ad refers to a science grant derived from an emergency bipartisan bill passed without safeguards against the money going to the forbidden reaches of entomology.

The Miami Herald editorial board: "Once again the Florida Legislature can’t seem to keep its collective hands off the separate and co-equal branch of government, the judiciary." "Don’t tread on judiciary".

Meanwhile, Bill Cotterell reports that "State Democratic Party Chairman Rod Smith says his party won't follow the GOP lead and take a position on Florida Supreme Court retention -- but he will as a private citizen." "Democratic chairman: 'Don't politicize the judiciary'".

About FLA Politics

Florida's "netroots" and professional "media blogs" are digested in the two columns immediately below. The to the right summarizes hand picked articles, punditry and editorials about Florida politics. The far right column incorporates both permanent links and specialized news digests which are customized as necessary (now featuring news about Rubio's campaign, and the latest on Jeb).